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Donald Trump is doing to the GOP exactly what he did to the USFL
Thirty years ago, a rival league threatened to supplant the NFL. It might have succeeded were it not for TrumpFriday, May 20, 2016 01:30 AM PDT 40
Business Donald Trump, GOP, john barron
Friday, May 20, 2016 01:30 AM PDT
Donald Trump (Credit: AP/Dennis Van Tine)
I didn’t get to do a lot of original reporting in 1985 as a clerk on
United Press International’s sports desk in New York. My job was to move
copy and box scores to our client newspapers as fast as possible, and
so every night I took dictation from sportswriters around the country –
at baseball stadiums or at ringside, at the racetrack or inside the
arena.
Thirty years later, it seems likely I also took a bit of dictation from a man with a shot to be the next president of the United States.
You
might well have heard in the last couple of days of Donald Trump’s
apparent habit of acting as his own spokesman. A variety of news
accounts have recalled Trump using the aliases John Barron or John
Miller while posing as a fictitious spokesman for his organizations.
Trump has denied doing so in at least one of the cited instances. Then
again, it appears he also admitted to the ruse in a sworn deposition
years ago. Over the weekend, it seemed hard for either Trump’s
supporters or his critics to know exactly what to make of it all. The
only consensus seems to be that, if true, it was more weird than
anything else.
Now, let’s back up a bit farther. In 1985, Trump was the owner of the New Jersey Generals, a team in the fledgling United States Football League. The teams played in the spring and summer, and the league was meant to be a rival to the National Football League. Trump, unsurprisingly perhaps, became known for high-profile player signings, one of his most expensive being the acquisition of Doug Flutie, the Boston College quarterback who had won the Heisman Trophy. Soon enough – again perhaps not surprisingly – Trump wanted to re-visit the Flutie deal. He wanted the owners of the other teams in the USFL to chip in to cover the costs of his quarterback.
That, then, is how I came to write this dispatch on April 1, 1985.
I can’t remember when I first came to believe Barron was in fact Trump. It’s not inconceivable that Trump told me himself. I know I had thought at the time that I’d rarely dealt with such a frank and forthcoming spokesman. And I know I have told the story to family and friends for years. David Tucker, who was sports editor at UPI in 1985, told me this week that some reporters wondered if Barron was actually Trump himself. But he, like me, remains as stumped today as we were years ago about why Trump might have engaged in his charade.
The Trump news cycle has quickly rolled on, the flap just another seemingly minor hiccup in a run of remarkable political success for the presumptive Republican nominee.
Donald Trump is doing to the GOP exactly what he did to the USFL
Thirty years ago, a rival league threatened to supplant the NFL. It might have succeeded were it not for Trump
Topics:
Donald Trump,
GOP,
john barron,
ProPublica,
United States Football League,
USFL, Business News, Politics News
Donald Trump (Credit: AP/Dennis Van Tine)
This originally appeared on ProPublica.
I didn’t get to do a lot of original reporting in 1985 as a clerk on
United Press International’s sports desk in New York. My job was to move
copy and box scores to our client newspapers as fast as possible, and
so every night I took dictation from sportswriters around the country –
at baseball stadiums or at ringside, at the racetrack or inside the
arena.Thirty years later, it seems likely I also took a bit of dictation from a man with a shot to be the next president of the United States.
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Now, let’s back up a bit farther. In 1985, Trump was the owner of the New Jersey Generals, a team in the fledgling United States Football League. The teams played in the spring and summer, and the league was meant to be a rival to the National Football League. Trump, unsurprisingly perhaps, became known for high-profile player signings, one of his most expensive being the acquisition of Doug Flutie, the Boston College quarterback who had won the Heisman Trophy. Soon enough – again perhaps not surprisingly – Trump wanted to re-visit the Flutie deal. He wanted the owners of the other teams in the USFL to chip in to cover the costs of his quarterback.
That, then, is how I came to write this dispatch on April 1, 1985.
NEW YORK – New Jersey Generals owner Donald Trump has asked the other USFL owners to provide ‘partial reimbursement’ for quarterback Doug Flutie’s multi-million dollar contract, a spokesman for Trump said Monday.The story went on to quote Barron saying that the other owners had agreed to assist Trump before Flutie was signed, and that Trump was merely calling in the chit. The story quoted Barron acknowledging that the other owners might not pony up, but that it was important for Trump to call them out because he wanted “the record to reflect” the truth behind the terms of the Flutie deal.
John Barron, a vice president of the Trump Organization, said the New Jersey owner wanted the other owners to honor an agreement reached earlier this year before Trump signed Flutie to a 5-year contract worth between $5 and $8 million.
“When a guy goes out and spends more money than a player is worth, he expects to get partial reimbursement from the other owners,” Barron said of Trump’s signing of Flutie.
I can’t remember when I first came to believe Barron was in fact Trump. It’s not inconceivable that Trump told me himself. I know I had thought at the time that I’d rarely dealt with such a frank and forthcoming spokesman. And I know I have told the story to family and friends for years. David Tucker, who was sports editor at UPI in 1985, told me this week that some reporters wondered if Barron was actually Trump himself. But he, like me, remains as stumped today as we were years ago about why Trump might have engaged in his charade.
The Trump news cycle has quickly rolled on, the flap just another seemingly minor hiccup in a run of remarkable political success for the presumptive Republican nominee.
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